LOOKING 

FORWARD 


By 

William  Adams  Brown 


A PAPER  read  at  the  meeting 
of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ  in  America, 
held  at  Atlantic  City,  New  Jersey, 
December  11,  1918. 


LOOKING 

FORWARD 


ON  November  1 1 Marshal 
Foch  and  his  colleagues,  on 
behalf  of  the  Allied  Na- 
tions, signed  the  armistice  which 
announced  to  the  world  that  the 
unexampled  sacrifices  of  the  past 
four  years  had  been  crowned  with 
victory.  Relief  and  gratitude, 
wonder  and  congratulation  have 
had  their  first  expression,  and  in 
the  more  sober  days  that  follow  we 
are  face  to  face  again  with  duty 
and  with  opportunity.  God  has 
given  us  a triumph  beyond  our 
hopes.  It  is  for  us  to  determine 
what  use  we  shall  make  of  it. 

First  of  all,  we  would  utter  our 
heartfelt  gratitude  to  Almighty 
God  for  the  signal  evidence  which 
he  has  given  us  of  His  beneficent 
providence.  Beyond  and  above  all 
human  factors  in  the  great  events 
which  have  transpired  we  have 
been  conscious  of  a divine  actor 
overruling  evil  for  good  and  mak- 


ONE 


Looking  Forward 


ing  the  very  wrath  of  men  to  praise 
Him.  We  realize  that  what  we 
have  won  we  have  won  not  by  our- 
selves or  for  ourselves.  We  are 
trustees  for  God  and  for  the  gen- 
erations that  come  after  us,  and  He 
will  hold  us  responsible  for  our 
fidelity  to  this  trust. 

Foremost  in  our  thought  and 
prayer  are  the  soldiers  and  sailors 
who  are  coming  back  to  resume  the 
places  which  they  have  left  for  a 
time  at  the  call  of  their  country, 
and  the  families  of  those  who  will 
never  come  back.  We  must  see  to 
it  that  among  the  voices  that  speak 
our  welcome  to  these  home-comers 
the  Church  has  her  word  of  greet- 
ing and  cheer.  And  we  must  speak 
by  our  deeds  even  more  loudly 
than  by  our  words.  Let  us  have 
ready  for  these  returning  soldiers 
a place  to  work  and  something 
worth  working  for.  May  they  find 
the  Church  alert,  active,  resolute, 
united,  committed  with  heart  and 
soul  to  the  completion  of  the  task 
they  have  begun,  the  task  of  free- 


TWO 


Looking  Forward 


ing  mankind  from  the  tyranny  of 
ruthless  force,  and  laying  the 
foundations  of  a new  social  order 
wherein  men  and  nations  shall 
dwell  together  in  freedom,  justice, 
brotherhood  and  peace. 

To  these  principles  we  would 
dedicate  ourselves  anew.  We 
would  do  this  as  patriots  in  our  re- 
lations with  other  peoples,  that  we 
may  carry  into  the  tasks  of  peace 
the  principles  which  have  inspired 
us  in  making  war.  We  must  re- 
assert the  truth  long  ago  uttered 
by  Israel’s  prophets  that  nations, 
like  individuals,  are  sons  of  God, 
and  that  for  nations,  as  for  indi- 
viduals, greatness  and  liberty  alike 
are  realized  through  united  serv- 
ice. We  must  reinforce,  by  every 
influence  in  our  power,  the  efforts 
of  our  President  and  his  associates 
at  the  peace  table  to  establish  a 
league  of  free  nations  in  which  law 
shall  replace  license  and  coopera- 
tion, rivalry.  God  grant  that  they 
may  be  guided  in  their  counsels  to 
such  wise  action  that  this  purpose 


THREE 


Looking  Forward 


of  unity  may  find  effective  and  re- 
sponsible expression,  and  that  we 
who  remain  at  home  may  so  second 
their  efforts  by  voice  and  pen  that 
the  cause  for  which  our  soldiers 
have  dared  and  sacrificed  so  greatly 
may  not  be  imperiled  by  our  lack 
of  courage  and  faith. 

We  must  act  in  the  spirit  of  our 
faith.  Spared  as  we  have  been  the 
extremity  of  sacrifice,  we  must 
share  with  the  suffering  and  needy 
of  all  lands  the  burdens  which  they 
have  borne  for  our  sake.'  We 
must  do  this  freely  and,  of  course, 
as  becomes  co-workers  in  a com- 
mon task.  As  we  have  been  com- 
rades in  war  let  us  remain  partners 
in  peace.  May  we  see  the  world’s 
need  as  a whole  and  render  a 
world-wide  ministry.  While  we 
deal  justly  with  those  who  have 
done  wrong,  holding  them  to  a 
strict  account  for  their  deeds,  let 
us  not  so  act  as  to  shut  the  door 
against  repentance  and  amend- 
ment, but  rather  as  becomes  serv- 
ants of  the  Christ  who  came  to  save 


FOUR 


Looking  Forward 


sinners  and  who  has  said  to  us 
through  His  apostle,  “If  thine 
enemy  hunger,  feed  him.  If  he 
thirst,  give  him  to  drink,  for  by  so 
doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire 
upon  his  head.” 

And  while  we  follow  justice  and 
mercy  abroad,  we  must  not  forget 
to  do  justice  and  show  mercy  at 
home.  What  shall  it  profit  us  as 
a nation  to  gain  the  whole  world 
and  lose  our  own  soul?  With 
what  conscience  can  we  preach 
unity  to  the  nations  if  we  ourselves 
are  divided  by  rivalries  of  class  or 
of  race  or  of  creed?  In  the  “So- 
cial Creed  of  the  Churches”  we 
have  publicly  declared  our  faith 
that  the  principles  of  the  Gospel 
are  valid  for  all  life,  economic,  po- 
litical, social,  racial.  We  believe 
that  man  is  more  precious  than 
anything  that  man  makes  and  that 
man  grows  to  be  man  through 
freedom  and  responsibility.  In  all 
questions  which  affect  his  life  as 
producer  and  spender,  questions  of 
hours  and  of  wages,  of  housing 


FI  vs 


Looking  Forward 


and  of  sanitation,  of  employment 
and  of  management,  of  the  owner- 
ship of  the  tools  of  labor  and  the 
distribution  of  the  products  of  la- 
bor, we  must  apply  Christ’s  prin- 
ciple of  the  sacredness  of  person- 
ality. Not  the  amount  of  goods 
produced  must  be  our  test  of  na- 
tional prosperity,  but  the  uses  made 
of  them  and,  above  all,  the  spirit 
of  those  who  produce  and  of  those 
who  use.  Let  us,  therefore,  urge 
upon  capital  its  responsibility  to 
make  labor  its  partner,  and  upon 
labor  its  duty  to  observe  loyally 
the  agreements  it  has  made,  upon 
the  more  highly  organized  groups 
their  obligation  to  those  who  are 
still  unorganized,  and  to  all  their 
duty  to  society  as  a whole,  of  which 
they  are  at  once  servants  and  trus- 
tees. Inheritors  of  the  Protestant 
tradition  of  freedom  of  conscience, 
we  must  not  be  afraid  of  free  dis- 
cussion, even  if  we  disagree  w'ith 
what  is  uttered.  Whether  In  the 
field  of  religion  or  politics,  Indus- 
trial organization  or  social  rela- 


SIX 


Looking  Forward 


tionships,  we  must  meet  falsehood 
with  the  truth,  confident  that  if  the 
truth  be  spoken  in  love  and  exem- 
plified in  life  it  must  in  the  end 
prevail. 

Above  all,  let  us  illustrate  within 
the  Church  itself  the  principles  we 
desire  to  see  realized  in  the  world. 
During  the  months  that  have 
passed  w’e  have  been  working  to- 
gether for  ends  beyond  ourselves 
and  through  our  common  work 
have  discovered  our  kinship  with 
one  another  in  the  deepest  and 
most  vital  spiritual  experience.  We 
must  guard  what  we  have  won. 
Having  proved  that  even  in  spite 
of  our  divisions  we  can  work  to- 
gether as  Christian  brothers,  let  us 
dare  to  believe  that  we  may  realize 
a relationship  more  intimate  still 
and  be  led  in  God’s  Providence 
into  that  complete  unity  which  shall 
be  an  answer  to  the  prayer  of 
Christ  and  a witness  to  the  world 
of  God’s  purpose  of  salvation. 

Already  voices  are  being  heard 
in  different  countries  summoning  us 


SEVEN 


Looking  Forward 


to  such  a unity.  Let  us  answer  this 
call  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  given, 
and  let  us  prepare  for  it  by  such 
conferences  as  shall  enable  us  to 
meet  our  fellow  Christians  of  other 
lands  with  a common  experience 
and  a united  program.  Let  us  with 
them  reconsecrate  ourselves  to  the 
primary  task  of  the  Church,  the 
witness  to  all  the  peoples  to  that 
living  God  Who  has  given  His  Son 
to  be  the  Saviour  of  the  World 
and  through  Whom  alone  individu- 
als and  nations  alike  find  strength 
and  wisdom,  unity  and  peace.  To 
make  men  know  Him  in  the  beauty 
of  His  character  and  the  com- 
pelling power  of  His  spirit,  to  help 
them  i:o  see  in  Him  the  face  of  the 
Father  He  came  to  reveal,  to  in- 
spire them  to  action  that  shall  share 
this  vision  with  those  who  have  not 
seen  it,  and  unite  them  in  common 
effort  to  make  His  Will  prevail  in 
every  sphere  of  life — this  is  the  su- 
preme task  of  the  Church,  and  to 
this  task  we  would  reconsecrate 
ourselves  today. 


EIGHT 


GENERAL  WAR-TIME 
COMMISSION  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

105  East  22nd  Street 
New  York  City 

Washington  Office  at 

937  Woodward  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 


Officers  of  the 
Commission 

Robert  E.  Speer 
Chairman 

Rt.  Rev.  William  Lawrence 
Vice-Chairman 


Rev.  William  Adams  Brown 
Secretary 

Rev.  Gaylord  S.  White 
Associate  Secretary 

Rev.  W.  Stuart  Cramer 
Rev.  Jasper  T.  Moses 
Harold  H.  Tryon 
Assistant  Secretaries 

Margaret  Renton 
Office  Secretary 


Officers  of  the 
Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches  of  Christ 
in  America 

Rev.  Frank  Mason  North 
President 

Alfred  R.  Kimball 
Treasurer 

Rev.  Charles  S.  Macfarland 
General  Secretary 

Rev.  Worth  M.  Tippy 
Rev.  Henry  A.  Atkinson 
Rev.  Hximund  deS.  Brunner 
Rev.  Charles  L.  Goodell 
Rev.  Roy  B.  Guild 
Rev.  Sidney  L.  Gulick 
Secretaries 

Caroline  W.  Chase 
Rev.  Eddison  Mosiman 
Assistants  to  the  General 
Secretary 


Executive  Committee  of  the  Commission 


Rev.  Alfred  Williams  Anthony 

Rev.  Henry  A.  Atkinson 

President  Clarence  A,  Barbour 

Rev.  Samuel  Z.  Batten 

Rev.  F.  C.  Berger 

Rev.  Edgar  Blake 

E.  M.  Bowman 

Rev.  J.  F.  Carson 

Rev.  W.  I.  Chamberlain 

Rev.  F.  G.  Coffin 

Rev.  W.  Stuart  Cramer 

Miss  Mabel  Cratty 

Rev.  Lyman  E.  Davis 

Rev.  D.  D.  Forsyth 

John  M.  Glenn 

Rev.  B.  D.  Gray 

Rev.  Howard  B.  Grose 

William  A.  Harbison 

Rev.  William  I.  Haven 

Professor  J.  R.  Hawkins 

Bishop  Theodore  S.  Henderson 


George  Innes 

Lt.  Col.  Walter  F.  Jenkins 

Alfred  R.  Kimball 

Pres.  Henry  Churchill  King 

Rev.  F.  H.  Knubel 

Bishop  Walter  R.  Lambuth 

Rev.  Albert  G.  Lawson 

Pres.  Wm.  Douglas  Mackeniie 

Bishop  William  F.  McDowell 

John  R.  Mott 

Rev.  R.  Niebuhr 

Rt.  Rev.  Theodore  I.  Reese 

Rev.  H.  Franklin  Schlegel 

Fred  B.  Smith 

James  M.  Speers 

President  J.  Ross  Stevenson 

Rev.  Paul  Moore  Strayer 

Bishop  Wilbur  P.  Thirkield 

Wilbur  K.  Thomas 

Rev.  James  I.  Vance 


